Religion - Overview
One hallmark of the American experience captured in the Museum's collections is the nation's broad diversity of religious faiths. Artifacts range from Thomas Jefferson's Bible to a huge "Sunstone" sculpture carved for a Mormon temple in Illinois in 1844 to a household shrine from the home of a Pueblo Indian in the 1990s. Furniture, musical instruments, clothing, cooking ware, and thousands of prints and figures in the collections have all played roles in the religious lives of Americans. The most comprehensive collections include artifacts from Jewish and Christian European Americans, Catholic Latinos, Protestant Arab Americans, Buddhist and Christian Asian Pacific Americans, and Protestant African Americans. One notable group is the Vidal Collection of carved figures known as santos and other folk religious material from the practice of Santeria in Puerto Rico.
"Religion - Overview" showing 20 items.
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Chalchiuhtlicue [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex: a goddess wearing a headdress, a nose ring, and carrying two unidentified objects in her hands. She has a long, wide tail of jade, where images of tricksters are imprinted. Translation of caption at bottom of card: "She of the skirt of jades / Goddess of the waters." Unmailed card, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, ca. 1880s-1970s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1940
- 1900-1920
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Tezcatlipoca [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex. The god wears a feather headdress and tail along with his costume. Translation of caption at bottom of card: "Smoking mirror / God of Providence." Bourbon Codice, Lam. 22. Unmailed card, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1900
- 1940
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Ueuecoyotl [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex. depicting the god of song, dance and music. This figure appears to have the head of a coyote, the animal that represents this god. Translation of caption at bottom of card: "Old Coyote / God of the Song, Dance and Music." Bourbon Codice, Lam. 4. Unmailed card, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, ca. 1880s-1970s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1900
- 1920
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Uitzilopochtli [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, made after a 16th c. codex, depicting a hummingbird god holding a serpent in one hand and a shield in the other, with a feather headdress. Translation of the caption at the bottom of the card: "God of the Aztecs and of War / Humming bird from the South." Codice Borbonico, Lam 34. Unmailed card, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, ca. 1880s-1970s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1940
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Tlaloc [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex, depicting Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god. He wears a feather headdress and costume with a long tail and carries unidentified objects in his hands. The caption and illustration indicate he is also a patron of farming and agriculture. Translation of caption at bottom of card: "God of the Rain / He who causes the rains and growth of vegetation." (Bourbon Codice. Lam. 7). Unmailed card, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1940
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Subject
- Tlaloc
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Quetzalcoatl [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Maker unidentified
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex. Illustration of Quetzalcoatl wearing a headdress that resembles a bird, with a mask that includes a beak. He holds a serpent in one hand and an unidentified object in the other. Translation of caption at bottom of card: "The quetzal feather snake / God of the wind." (Bourbon Codice, Lam. 22)
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1940
- collector
- Blenkle, Victor A. Dr (physician) 1900- 1978
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Subject
- Quetzalcoatl
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Xipe-Totec [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Summary
- Reproduction of a drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex: an Aztec god wearing an elaborate feather headdress, holding a shield in one hand and an unidentifiable object in the other. Translation of caption at bottom of the postcard: "Our Lord Flayed / God of gold smiths." (Bourbon Codice, Lam. 14). Unmailed card, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1940
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Tonatiuh [picture postcard]
- Notes
- Series III, Box 27, Religion--Mexico (Aztec)
- Maker unidentified
- Summary
- Reproduction of a color drawing by Miguel Covarrubias, after a 16th c. codex, depicting Tonatiuh, the God of the sun. He kneels on one leg, holds an eagle in the air with one hand, and a shield of some sort in the other. Translation of caption at bottom of postcard: "He who gives light / God of the Sun." Bourbon Codex, Lam. 6. Unmailed, no message, no postmark
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1900
- 1920
- artist
- Covarrubias, Miguel 1904-1957
- publisher
- Tarjeta Postal
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
La Malinche
- Description
- La Malinche, the title of this lithograph, was the indigenous woman who translated for Cortés between Maya, Náhuatl, and Spanish during his first years in Mexico. Considered either as a traitor or a founding mother by some Mexicans, La Malinche was Cortés's lover and the mother of his favorite son Martín. She and Moctezuma are also central figures in the Matachines dances that are performed in Mexico and New Mexico. Originally commemorating the expulsion of the Moors from southern Spain in 1492, the dance was brought to Mexico where it was treated as a means for Christianizing native peoples. The historical figure of La Malinche, known in Spanish by the name Doña Marina, is also credited for playing an almost miraculous role in the early evangelization of central Mexico. This print, made by Jean Charlot in the 1933, shows a young girl in the role of La Malinche, holding a rattle or toy in one hand, and a sword in the other. Jean Charlot, a French-born artist, lived and studied in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. He depicted stylized scenes from the daily life of Mexican workers, particularly indigenous women.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1933
- graphic artist
- Charlot, Jean
- ID Number
- GA*23401
- catalog number
- 23401
- accession number
- 299563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "Dance of the Nahikai"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of the “Dance of the Nahikai” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate XII (p.438) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “The Mountain Chant: a Navajo ceremony” in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1883-84. The illustration was engraved by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1887
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- block maker
- A. P. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1539
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1539
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
